


Vergil's Novel

by Asphodel_Sky



Series: Let my soul smile through my heart [2]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Even if that character death is just an error in communication than anything else, Grief/Mourning, I still leave it just to be safe, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Mundus is His Own Warning, Not Really Character Death, One-Sided Dante/Vergil, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Self-Worth Issues, Wrongful Imprisonment
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2020-12-31 19:49:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21151238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asphodel_Sky/pseuds/Asphodel_Sky
Summary: A sequel toDante's Journal.Devil May Cry is just as dirty as V has imagined it to be, but he wasn't expecting the silence that welcomed him, instead of his brother's voice.Remember to check tags! All warnings are there.





	1. Chapter 1

He stands in front of the Devil May Cry. 

It looks just as dirty as V was expecting it to be. The windows probably weren't cleaned for _years_, the door has definitely seen better days, the mold is settling in the dark wood, the sign is covered in dust and doesn't even work, the stairs have cracks and missing pieces. This place is a health hazard. 

Does his brother truly don't care how he might look for his potential customers? Does he know the meaning of a clean workplace? Or _shame_, for that matter? He should take more care to his health too, just because he has a demonic healing factor doesn't mean it should constantly work overtime. 

He opens the door and enters the building without any hesitation, just for V to suddenly freeze. 

This place… no one has lived, or even was there in years now, if the amount of dust is anything to go by. The plant in the corner is dead too, all wilted and dried up. He tries to light the bulb up, but it's not working. The fan doesn't work too. 

What happened? 

V goes to the desk, takes carefully the magazine that lies on it, and checks the date. 

October 2004. Fifteen years ago. 

“Well, Shakespeare, what do we got here? Where's the sunshine child?”

“Dante's forty-three, he's hardly a child, Griffon” V says, looking through the drawers, seeking for answers. 

He finds unpaid bills, coupons, a menu of the nearest pizza place, a few books, some documents and an old glove with a cut on it. 

It looks familiar for some reason, but V's not entirely sure why. 

He puts the items back to their places, while trying to not sneeze from all the dust that's now in the air. 

“Dante didn't change the place of residue, that's for sure. Otherwise, the photo wouldn't be here still.”

Before he can explore the office area further, he hears a loud sound of something heavy falling down upstairs. 

“His clothes are still in his wardrobe too!”

“What did you do?”

“Nothin'!”

V sighs and goes upstairs. 

He finds Griffon in Dante's room, with the clothes spilled on the floor, and the shelves out of the wardrobe. 

The whole room was relatively clean, and pretty naked too. Sure, there are furniture and old books, but there are no bedsheets or pillows on bed and no weapons his brother would surely have close to his rest place. But there are none. Not even a small dagger. 

“Weird… It looks like someone has cleaned up the whole place, but didn't bother with closing it, or even maintaining it. And we already know it can't be Dante.”

Before V can continue his train of thoughts, he hears the doors opening downstairs and hard clicking on the wooden floor. He curses himself. 

He completely forgot to check the place for any wards, believing Dante wouldn't bother with them, if he knew any in the first place, so the fairly simple alarm ward has bypassed his senses. 

“So, you going to tell me what you're doing here, pretty boy?”

He turns around and tries not to choke on his saliva. 

In front of V stands Eva. 

No, he reprimands himself, that's not Eva, she wouldn't ever wear those clothes that woman wears, she also lacks something that V learnt to associate with his late parent, besides this mother-lookalike reads as a full-blooded demon to V's senses. 

“I'm looking for Dante, and this was the last place he lived in” he answers, tightening the grip on his cane, on the last piece of his darling Yamato. The most faithful and loyal treasure he ever had. 

“Dante's gone.”

“What?”

“Dante's gone. He's been gone for fifteen years now, since his duel with Mundus. Barely anyone even remembers him now, so it's rather suspicious that you would be looking for him” Trish comes closer, circling V. 

No. No, no, no, nononono, what do you mean _gone_, he can't be gone, Dante can't be dead, _it wasn't supposed to be like this, where is his younger brother?_ He was supposed to live in the Human World, he was supposed to be safe, or as safe as someone like Dante can be safe, with the blood of Sparda running in his veins, but safe nonetheless! He should be here, greeting V with that infuriatingly smug, cocky and cruel smile, with his eyes burning bright with mischievousness, with his Devil dare attitude, he shouldn't be _dead_. Dante was supposed to wait for Vergil here, wait until he comes back for one last duel, one last fight, one last argument, and see which twin will come out victorious _this_ time. 

V could almost swear his heart stopped beating for one second. 

“Well?”

Why does she think he's going to answer that? V can easily escape her using Griffon, the windows are probably easy to break through them, so it shouldn't be hard.

Maybe he feels sentimental, curse his weak, human heart, but right now she's the only link to Dante he has now. It's a hard pill to swallow.

Get yourself together V, he thinks, there's Urizen still out there, getting ready to summon the Qliphoth and feed on its fruit. And as much as V loathes it, he needs help with this particular demon. 

“I've met Dante long time ago” he starts, knowing Trish won't have the time to verify the information, or if she would be even able to without Dante here. “We were still kids back then. But our contact was cut short when we were both eight for some reason” all that he said until now is basically true. “We met again nine years later, and I've learnt he's became a devil hunter, but sadly I didn't have too much time to catch up with Dante before my next business trip” still technically true. “Back then he said we should keep our contact to almost nonexistent level, only contacting in emergencies, because he was worried about demons that might find me to get to him and use me to make him kneel, but he assured me if I ever need a help with demons, I should come and find him. And now it's that emergency.” V feels he can be proud of himself. He's never been good at thinking up the back stories in a moment's notice, so that he could do it now, and make it believable even, is something to be proud of. 

The woman hums under her nose. 

“Well, you definitely don't look to be Dante's age, but if I didn't know Lady… Nevermind. So, what's this emergency?”

Now, this part is something he was practicing earlier, so it should go lighter. 

Damn Dante for not making his life easier. But in an instant after he thought that, V remembers what happened with his darling brother and feels a pang of regret and grief. 

“A powerful demon is about to resurrect and… I need some help.”

“Does this demon have a name?”

“Vergil.”

Nero behaves so much like his late brother it hurts almost physically, and the weak, human heart in his chest twists painfully. 

He's got the same fire and beauty he came to associate with Dante, and he's so spirited when he fights, so passionate, even if he holds some sort of underlying anger Dante didn't have. He might not have the same talent to weapons like his twin had, but he's a master of his own. Nero might not use two guns like him, but the Blue Rose is just as loyal to him as were Ebony and Ivory to Dante. V wonders when Dante had the time to have a son; it had to be just before the Temen-Ni-Gru was raised, before Vergil made a mistake of not grabbing younger man's hand when it was extended to him. 

Oh, how he misses Dante, just now V realises, when he knows he will never have his younger twin back.

Nero is strong, but unfortunately he doesn't have enough power to defeat Urizen — he's not even close to his demonic half's might, and the fault for that lies in V, for it was him who ripped the boy's arm out to get darling Yamato back. He took away more than just the katana, a fact he realised when Vergil cut himself in pieces; because Nero had more power stored in his demonic hand besides the sword. He had there some powerful artifacts, that surely fueled Urizen's power even more, his demonic half greedy for power as always is, not leaving even a drop for V. 

And now the weak human stands in front of the demon king, but this time he's torn apart not by fear, but by the overwhelming grief and sadness. 

“What's the point of the power, if we can't even use it against Dante? He's _dead_, do you understand it? _Dead!_”

“And why does it matter so much?”

“_Why_, he asks!” V laughs out “Oh, how low have you fallen if you don't know why.”

Dante has always been Vergil's measure of power; the only one equal to the Dark Slayer, the only one person that Vergil treasures more than almost anything else in this world — only Yamato holds the same place in elder twin's heart as dear younger brother. Dante, whom he loves and detests, who's his first and last breath. Dante, for whom he was born, and who was born for Vergil. Dante, who's now dead, dead, _dead_, and two parts of Vergil are alive, and V hates it with a burning passion and a drowning grief. 

“Too weak and too late, always too weak and too late!”

Urizen looks at him with unfeeling eyes, and with a growing anger, V realises his demonic half truly doesn't care. He doesn't care Dante's gone, or maybe he doesn't believe it. 

Nero, all in all, feels entirely too much like them, like Dante and Vergil, so maybe, just _maybe_... Urizen confused the red hunter with the boy. 

It's not even that far-fetched, demons always had a hard time to recognise if Vergil was Sparda or son of thereof. If Urizen mixed Nero and Dante up, that would mean he believes he just beat up and defeated his _brother_, and not his _nephew_. When V puts it that way, then no wonder Urizen doesn't care if Dante's alive or dead, because as far as he knows, he just did what he always wanted — defeat his younger brother, show him his true power and that he's not to be underestimated. And all _that_ means Urizen doesn't have anything to be afraid of now. One of his worst foes were overpowered by him without even eating from the Qliphoth, and now nothing stands in his way for the Mundus' throne. 

“You don't know, of course you don't know...”

That makes V want to laugh and laugh and laugh. 

He needs to move. V needs new plan to make Urizen submit. 

And when they become one again, Vergil will find Mundus and take the revenge for what he's done to his family.

After a month of gathering the strength back, V was struck with the solution to his little problem, which, ultimately, is easy and straightforward. 

And that's all thanks to Nero's murmuring under his nose: “That demon can't be sneaky to save its miserable life even if it _tried_”. 

Instead of going at Urizen head-first, and wait until one of the devil hunters beat him up until Urizen lies on the ground powerless, V is just going to sneak around his demon half while Nero and Trish distract him with some chit-chat. But the human is still somewhat mad his first _perfectly fine_ plan didn't work, just because he didn't expect for Dante to go and get himself killed, just like Sparda. Leaving him all alone again. 

V bites his tongue, trying to not think about the matter like that. It's not Dante's fault he wasn't able to survive Mundus — Vergil himself was barely able to do that, and the red hunter defeated the Demon Emperor nonetheless, which he knows for certain, otherwise the elder twin would still be under Mundus' control. Dante probably died of received injuries. 

V is not going to let Dante’s death go to waste. He will unite with Urizen, and then he will go to hell and shred Mundus to tiny pieces.

But now here they are, Nero, Trish, and Lady, who has tagged along with them when she heard about the job, are in front of Urizen. The demon is standing next to the tree, with the ripe fruit picked already, and V is carefully making his way behind the demon king, and if it weren't for them and Dante's friends, he surely would be discovered a long time ago by Urizen, and then… Who knows what the demon would do to him. Kill V, perhaps. 

He's so close to the demon, so _close_ to reuniting with his other half, so they can finally become Vergil again… 

V just needs to time it out well. He cannot stab Urizen _before_ he eats the fruit, otherwise Vergil will probably turn into ashes the second a weak wind hits him, and V finds that unacceptable. He did _not_ lived through hell and came back just to bite the dust soon after. Vergil has one more thing to do on this world, disappearing before it’s fulfilled is undesirable.

“—Dante never had a kid, I would know” he hears Lady from afar. “Nero's definitely Vergil's brat. Besides, the way Yamato had reacted to him in Fortuna is a pretty damning evidence.”

Was she telling the truth, or was it just a ploy to shock Urizen? V can already tell it didn't work, Urizen didn't even appear to pay any attention to the woman, instead he stares at the beautiful fruit in his hand. Good. The more the demon focuses on it, the more likely V won't be detected by him. 

He's just behind Urizen, when the King sinks his fangs into the fruit. 

Now is V's chance. 

This time it is Urizen who is too slow to react. 

“_While thy branches mix with mine, and our roots together join_.”

He thrusts Urizen with his cane, the last piece of Yamato and finally, _finally_ he can feel peace. 

Vergil has barely come back to life a minute ago, and he was already shot in the head _twice_, which is _rude_. Does no one appreciate basic politeness these days?

“You have balls to come back, _Vergil_” hisses Lady, her voice full of venom. 

“So that is my welcoming committee? How charming.”

“You owed me, and because you're long overdue to pay back, I shoot you.”

“I do believe I don't owe you anything.”

“You owe _Dante_, that's for sure, and if you owe him, you owe me. Your stupid decision on top of Temen-Ni-Gru has really hit him hard. And if you fuck with him, you fuck with me. A package deal.”

“Dante's _dead_, why would he care?” Vergil tightens his grip on Yamato, but face stays carefully neutral. 

“What? Who the hell told you that?”

Trish impassively looks over her nails and looks at the half demon.

“I believe you, as V, misunderstood me” she starts. “By saying 'Dante's gone', I didn't mean 'he's dead'” before Vergil could open his mouth, Trish continues. “Dante's gone because he's sealed himself away together with Mundus on Mallet. He's hardly dead, but might as well be.” 

“Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?!”

Oh. Vergil forgot about Nero for a second there. 

“You” the boy says, pointing at Lady. “Said that that ugly piece of shit was my father, just for him and V to, I dunno, fuse together like fucking Power Rangers? And then Vergil was spit out of it? And who the hell is Dante?” 

“I know I don't talk about him often, brat, but I'm pretty sure I mentioned Dante once or twice to you.”

“You always called him 'your uncle', Old Lady.”

“That would actually explain why you don't know his name” she whispers under her nose. “But that doesn’t really matter that much right now.”

“_Doesn’t matter?_ Lady, I think it actually matters _a lot_.”

“What seal did he use?” Murmurs Vergil softly, not paying attention to others. “Can't be too complicated to break him out of it.” 

“We only know you have to be related to him by blood to be even able to get close to the place of the seal.”

“Trish!” Screams the human, distracting herself from the argument she had with the boy.

“What? Maybe he'll be able to get Dante out of there.”

“Sure, so he can kill him soon after he gets Dante out of it. Whatever. Do what you want, I'm getting outta here, but don't come to me with crying that Dante's dead for _real_ this time” and with that she turns on her heel and goes to the motorcycle she left fifty meters away from them, starts the engine and drives away. 

“She's just as angry as I remember.”

“Don't. She's just grieving, and she misses Dante very much. He was her best friend, you know?”

“Why should I care?” Of course his brother has replaced him with some human, Vergil thinks bitterly. His little brother usually ends up doing so, like with that artisan of his. The elder always tries to bury those traitorous emotions, so they won’t consume him, but after being V and Urizen for almost a month has destabilized his mental defenses. Another thing to work on.

“How is this my life?” Nero wonders aloud. “Kyrie, give me patience…”

_Kyrie?_ Was Nero brought up by the church, that he is calling for Lord? Sparda surely is turning inside his grave after hearing that.

“Don't you think I didn't see how the news about Dante has shocked V“ the demoness with his mother's likeness ignores Nero, and looks at him with cold eyes. Vergil will deny it until he lays in the grave, but it hurts a little seeing it. He'll need to work on desensitizing himself. ” Clearly he's important to you and want it or not, but you don't have a monopoly on him. But” she continues “if you do what Lady fears you'll do, then know I'll hunt you down and—” 

“Kill me?”

“No. I know when I'm outmatched. But I can seal you away. I'm not as good as Dante, but I'll manage” Trish throws her arm around Nero's neck. “C'mon kiddo, if I knew Lady told you next to nothing about them both earlier I would've told you all of this long ago. Unfortunately, most of my information is second or even third hand, because a lot of them I know from Mundus—” 

And soon, Vergil was left alone. It's all for the better, he thinks, there is now no one to distract him, as he plans to rescue his stubborn, unfortunate little brother.


	2. Chapter 2

Finding Mallet is not as easy as one may think. It cannot be like any other _good_ island, oh no, thinks Vergil, that thrice cursed island just _has_ to change its location every night, and make Vergil’s life that much harder. And the fact he has no idea how to even start pinpointing Mallet's location irks him immensely, if only because every ritual or the spell he can think of needs at least three days to charge that _will_ exhaust him magically, and even if he finds the island, he can’t just teleport there, even if he wasn’t tired from performing the spell in the first place. The anti-teleportation wards, despite their age, are still holding strong, which make this case a pretty difficult one. What it makes it even _harder_ is the sheer radius of the wards. They’re so vast they cover not only the island, but also waters around it, and even if Vergil teleports just outside them, he’ll need at least a day and an hour to get there by more conventional ways. He will need to find a solution to that later.

Trust his brother to seal himself away in the most annoying place on Earth. As always, Dante lives to drive Vergil crazy. How was Dante able to get there so fast anyway?

Oh, right. He had help from Trish.

And Vergil will never even consider asking for help, so he is back to the square one.

Unfortunately, the only thing the elder twin can think of that _might_ work and won’t exhaust Vergil completely afterwards, is opening portals with Yamato without a clear destination in mind and wish for the best. 

Vergil hates that idea with a burning passion. 

He did _not_ spend so much time in libraries and fighting with hordes of demons, honing his abilities and gaining all that power to rely on something as ridiculous as _luck_. It should not dictate the success of his self-appointed mission, not to mention it’s just _humiliating_ to find the Mallet Island by a _chance_ of all things. Vergil is not going to stand that.

The elder twin is going to research other ways to get to Mallet first. Dante surely won't mind — it's not like a few weeks will make such a big difference and Dante is not going anywhere anyway. 

Maybe he should start looking for the possible, not-so-draining solution in the old mansion? Vergil remembers he left his books before he went to raise Temen-Ni-Gru, deeming it as a safe place for them, and he knows there are more documents and books he didn't bother to read when he was a teenager — Vergil was far too busy with gathering as much information about Force Edge and Sparda as possible, so he ignored pretty much everything unrelated to his research. 

Now that Vergil has a satisfying starting point, he can begin working on rescuing his poor, foolish brother.

Vergil stands in front of the door leading to his father’s study, mother’s old orders creeps up on his spine. She forbid him and Dante to go inside — probably Sparda had some weapons and more dangerous spell books hidden there, away from the ever curious twins. Even as a teenager, Vergil still didn’t go inside there, respecting Eva’s wishes even after all this time, although he would probably go there, if he didn’t find all the information he needed about Temen-Ni-Gru beforehand.

Vergil hesitates for a few seconds, but grits his teeth. He's not a little child anymore — it's been decades since he was but a boy, who was stealing cookies with Dante to eat before the dinner was served. 

Vergil steels his resolve and pushes the door open.

The room looks visibly better than the rest of the mansion. It actually reminds Vergil of how Dante’s office looks, with the papers spilled from the desk, and dust covering every little forgotten corner.

Three walls are covered in the bookshelves, and on the last one hangs a family portrait, one that he never saw before. It looks more casual than the main one, with Sparda in just a dress shirt and black pants, his long hair are held by a ribbon in a ponytail, Eva is wearing one of her favorite everyday dresses and isn’t wearing any make-up. They were sitting on a couch that he and Dante liked so much, and in their arms there are two little kids.

This portrait was beautiful. It’s a shame Vergil never got to see it before now.

Before he can move to the bookshelves, Vergil suddenly feels a weak, almost faded away magical residue on the desk. He walks to it, and when he finds nothing on the desk, Vergil looks under it and… 

“Ah, there it is” he whispers softly, running his finger on the blood seal. 

Vergil knows it is a seal that hides something, but what is anyone's guess. Good thing he has learnt long ago how to break such things — even if he didn't hold any interested in sealing, he was interested in breaking them. 

It is a fairly simple design, all in all. From what Vergil can see, it just needs a drop of his blood to let him see what the seal is hiding. 

Why did Sparda use such an easy seal to breach? It would only make sense if he either didn't think anyone would try to find the mystery behind it, or if Sparda _hoped_ one of his misbehaving sons finds it, and see if they're clever enough to unravel the riddle. 

“Have you been here, Dante? Or did you respect mom's wishes?”

He smeared some of his blood on the seal. 

It lightened up a little, and Vergil hears something rumble behind him. He turns, and sees how the wall with the portrait moves and reveals the wooden door behind it. 

It shouldn't make any noise, Vergil thinks. The wall should have moved soundlessly, but probably because the seal wasn't powered up in years now, it had enough strength to achieve its primary objective, to move the wall, but the secondary one needs power the seal doesn't have, so it just bypassed that task completely. 

Vergil goes to the door and enters the hidden room. 

It's an armory. 

The power of the Devil Arms that are there is _enormous_. He can feel it almost draping on his skin, but not touching him, as if the Arms knew that he's related to their master, otherwise the power would touch him to make Vergil leave this place and never come back. It's not a far-fetched conclusion — over the years devils were often confusing him with Sparda, but because he doesn't have a bond with them, they might've come to the conclusion he's not his father, but has some connection to him. 

In the middle of the room there is a table, void of any items, but Vergil can vaguely see discoloration in the shape of two guns — so Dante probably _was_ there. 

“Interesting” he murmurs under the nose, turns on his heel and exits the armory. 

He wasted enough time already. Time to cease fooling around and start his research. 

Vergil found an interesting spell, that will be easy to perform for him, doesn't need a lot of energy to power it up, and it will resolve his Mallet dilemma. 

If applied on the map, it shows the highest residue of demonic power in the area. It constantly moves, like a lava lamp, just like the power is constantly moving. 

If Vergil is right, Mallet Island will have one of the highest concentration of that energy, which will show up on the map. The, he will teleport with Yamato to this place, or as close as he's able to do it with that cursed ward around the island, and then he will get on Mallet. Now Vergil only needs to find a way to get to the Mallet fast enough to not let it disappear on him. 

He takes V's necklace that Vergil found in the pocket of his pants one day, and he infuses it with some of his energy enough to power it up for three days, all the while whispering the words of the spell, then Vergil takes the world map and hangs the necklace over it. 

Ever so slowly, the pedant is moving over the piece of paper, as if it was drawing on the map, and the basic shapes of purplish demonic power ways are showing up. Good. 

Vergil looks at the map, fascinated by what he sees. The energy paths look _beautiful_ on the paper, with how they're flowing around, as if it was an ink on the parchment. 

When the necklace stops drawing, the purple paths starts to disperse, covering the whole map in small and huge dots. 

On the ocean Vergil can see two, no, three huge dots that are so close to each other they're almost blending. 

“So there you are, _Dante_...”

He's such a dumbass, although Vergil will _never_ admit it to anyone. 

He can just _fly_ to that blasted island.

“Dante will _never_ learn about this.”

Teleport in and flying to the island wasn't that hard, but Vergil wasn't expecting that his own body might have some objections about coming back to Mallet. 

He's unusually jumpy in this place, and he can feel how dread is slowly creeping on his back, even if the island itself is a peaceful (<strike>abandoned</strike>) place. He forcefully makes his shoulders to relax, lays his hand on Yamato, and takes a deep breath, holds it in his lungs for a few seconds, and then slowly exhale. Vergil knows what happened on Mallet, if only because of V, who took up the Nightmares and made them his familiars. Vergil logically knows it, and it seems his body _also_ knows is, but he himself holds no memories of this place. He knows he cut them out for a _good_ reason, but that doesn't make him feel any less frustrated by this lacking knowledge. 

Vergil feels the energy lazily flowing around the castle — Dante and Mundus are probably sealed away there. 

He takes another slow, deep breath and makes his way to the building. 

The elder twin feels how the wards around this place are moving to let him in, which already tells quite a bit of information about the seal itself — and it tells Vergil Trish wasn't lying.

Immediately after breaching the wards his senses are assaulted by two strong presences. They're close. 

Vergil walks into what looks like a throne room. Half of the ceiling is destroyed, and ivy has made itself at home in the cracks in the walls, the floor is overgrown with grass and weeds. In the middle of the room are two stone thrones, facing each other, and on them sits Dante and Mundus. Between those thrones, there's a huge circle with runes making up a word “SEAL” in demonic language. 

Because of that single word, Vergil knows the seal tries to hide its origins, tries to hide what it is, which _also_ lets Vergil narrow down the list of the potential things Dante might have used.

Vergil stands on front of his little brother. 

It would be so easy to kill him now. So easy to cut his heart through with Yamato and see the red blood pouring out of his chest. 

But it wouldn't be what Vergil wants. He wants a fight — a final clash of their swords, of their wills, not an easy victory. 

Vergil touches Dante’s hair gently. He looks just the same as V remembered when he was in the Nightmare. 

_He looks the same_. 

Dante didn't age. He looks as if he was sitting there for barely a day or two, not fifteen years. As if the time was stopped for him...

Vergil quickly turns in his heel, goes behind the throne and sweeps the rubble behind it and— yes, there _is_ a second circle there, and a pointy angle of a triangle. 

This seal is not easy to make, but it is one of the easier ones to make mid-battle. Probably that’s why Dante choose to use it in the first place.

Dante couldn't have possibly chosen _worse_ seal. It's a real pain to deal with, especially because Vergil found exactly _one_ mention it, and it was only about how to break it. That's all the information he has. 

“How did you know how to make it? Do you have some books about it in your shop? Or maybe someone taught you how to make it?”

It’s going to take him at least half a day to draw out the correct runes, and even longer to pump them full of his power. 

Oh, _joy_.

Vergil is going to apply the runes in three stages — first he needs to draw them inside of the first circle and power them up, then he needs to do the same with the second circle, and lastly, on the triangle points he needs to write the first rune of Dante’s name, as he was the creator of the seal. The letters need a different level of power poured into them — the runes around the outer circle needs the most of it, and the runes on the triangle needs the least. It might not be intuitive, but that seal is already rather unusual in its design. Normally, two circles shouldn’t be nearly touching each other without some sort of ‘buffer’ between them, like a triangle or a rectangle, to stabilize both circles and their powers. But here two circles doesn’t have that stability between each other, and that’s probably why the seal can even contain two such powerful devils like Mundus and Dante. The triangle outside of the circles is meant to contain them both in the same space, but Vergil is not entirely sure _what_ that might mean. Does that mean their minds are _also_ connected in some way? Or maybe they just have to be _physically_ close? Is it yet another protective measure to not let anyone break the seal so easily?

After drawing out the runes and powering them, there is one more rune that Vergil will need to apply in the middle, but that can wait until he rests a little. He is _not_ going to face neither his brother, nor Mundus, without recovering his energy. A day or two should be more than enough.

The last stroke of the brush, and he’s done. To activate his counter array, Vergil just needs to sacrifice one last bit of the power, barely a drop, and the seal will unravel in its seams. It is exciting, every time when Vergil gets to break a seal feels like a child seeing a mountain of presents on a birthday day.

Vergil backs off his hard work, sweeps his hair back, and activates the array.

Suddenly, a cloud of dust raises up when Dante and Mundus clashes their respective swords, and a powerful energy wave almost sends Vergil flying. When the dust clears out, Vergil sees a fast exchange of blows, before the pair jumped away from each other, and Dante for some reason makes a gesture as if he is drawing a bow. When Vergil looks closer at his brother’s hands, he can see that there indeed _is_ a bow, in a pale red shade, and an arrow. It seems like Dante has figured out how to visualize his power the way Vergil can summon his spectral swords.

Then Dante aims above Mundus’ head and lets the arrow fly, and mid-air it starts to multiply, making a rain of pointy objects that in their behavior reminds Vergil of projectiles, and they hit Mundus, making see-through holes in his body.

What shocks Vergil is that instead of getting angry, Mundus looks like as if Dante has just hung the stars.

“You really are like him! Just like him! Just like I told you, you have his soul!”

In barely a second Mundus pins Dante to the wall.

“Oh, my dearest Sparda, you came back to me!”

And the Emperor kisses Dante.

_What?_ What is going on? Why is Mundus calling Dante _Sparda?_

Dante tolerates the kiss for five seconds before he punches Mundus in the face and sends him flying across the room.

“Fuck you! You know I don’t believe in the reincarnation bullshit! And of _course_ I picked up some of his tricks! How could I _not?_”

After this, Dante seems to go absolutely _feral_ on Mundus, but Vergil can see Dante isn't blinded by rage, and is still entirely in control of his body.

Mundus tries to block Dante’s blows, but it just makes his brother even angrier than before, and he puts more and more power in his punches. He’s using Royal Guard style, but slightly modified, Vergil notes.

Then Dante quickly summons Rebellion, that got stuck in the wall when Mundus pinned the red hunter, and the sword cuts through Mundus, right where his demonic heart should be.

Mundus collapses.

Dante walks to his body, kicks his head and screams:

“Wake up, asshole! I’m not done with you yet!”

He kicks Mundus again, in the stomach this time.

“Wake up already!”

No response.

“... Mundus?”

Nothing.

“Hey, you’re not playing tricks on me, right? Hey! Stop it already and just wake up!”

Dante seems to become more and more unhinged.

“Hey, Mundus… Please, wake up, I won’t even get mad anymore when you say I have his soul again.”

He drops on his knees and takes Mundus’ body in his arms, hugging Emperor's head to his chest.

“Please, wake up! I don’t wanna be alone!”

And Vergil sees how Dante breaks down and cries ugly tears over the body of the fallen enemy.


	3. Chapter 3

Dante’s eyes are immediately on him after Vergil accidentally kicked a small rock while lifting his leg.

Eyes that don’t have the all consuming fire in them like they had those twenty-odd years ago. It is… disconcerting, to say at least.

“Vergil?”

His brother looks at him, seemingly shocked. The tears are still on his face, and the eyes are bloodshot from crying. He's shaking too. 

“Dante.”

His brother still looks at him with those wide, scared eyes. Vergil hates seeing him like that — Dante was always so fearless, and it was a part of his charm and beauty. The elder twin never would have known just how much he was _hoping_ Dante will always be his cocky self if he didn’t see the red hunter on his knees, so insecure, so _vulnerable_.

(<strike>There was one time, Vergil remembers, when he looked just as vulnerable, and it was when Dante extended his hand to him, trying to catch Vergil before he falls into the Underworld. Of course, Vergil’s pride didn’t allow him to take it — that, and his anger too.</strike>)

“Dan…? Oh. Right. That’s my name. Been a while since I heard it” he said it so quietly Vergil almost didn't catch that. 

Dante forgot his _name_.

There was a time when Vergil forgot his own name too, and it was after years upon years, upon _years_ of torture and brainwashing. The difference between Dante and Vergil here is Dante is still coherent, he still knows what is going on, while the elder twin was struggling to form the simplest of sentences at that point. 

His brother turns his eyes away from Vergil, and looks at Mundus with such intense hate, and something else, he almost took a step back. Instead, Vergil grits his teeth and takes a step _towards_ Dante. He has nothing to fear, he reminds himself. It's just Dante. And he's not looking at Vergil with those eyes. 

Vergil tightens the hold on Yamato, sweeps his hair back and walks to Dante. 

It's just Dante. He is not looking at Vergil with those eyes. He _never_ looked at him like that, and if Vergil has any say in it, he never will.

Dante still holds Mundus' body in his arms. 

The red hunter looks around the room with those void eyes.

“It’s been a while since I saw this place...”

“Fifteen years, I believe.”

Vergil is… not sure how he should approach Dante. His younger brother should be the same as he was twenty-four years ago on top of Temen-Ni-Gru, just looking slightly older, but in essence, the mirror of his nineteen-year-old self — brash, loud, confident, with the devil may care attitude that used to drive Vergil crazy. No extreme personality changes — what is barely twenty years for the beings like them, that might live even centuries longer than any ordinary human? What is ten years of separation, when they have a whole eternity ahead of them to know each other? At least, that’s how he used to think, before he became Urizen, before he became _V_, which gave him a new perspective of seeing things.

Time is so much more precious than Vergil ever thought it can be.

He shudders to know what has happened to Dante during those fifteen years, especially considering that even Vergil was forced to literally _cut his own memories_ for him to get a chance to reborn into something better, and stronger, than ever before.

And his brother was _somehow_ connected to Mundus for _fifteen_ years. They both were conscious during their time sealed together, as evident by how they were conversing, or maybe rather arguing. They could fight and duel with each other there too, because even if Dante would be able to make changes to his fighting style, out of boredom if nothing else, they wouldn't immediately jump at each other’s throats with bared swords and teeth if they weren’t already expecting that their enemy would be there, ready to par the blow, and respond with their own attack. And who knows what else the both of them were doing in that seal?

Which brings Vergil to the last point: the kiss.

That Dante even let Mundus touch him in such a way for all _five_ seconds is at best concerning, panic worthy and introducing Vergil’s way of brain bleach at worst. It should not have ever happen. 

The worst thing?

Dante seemed used to it.

“It’s lot of time, but considering I thought I’ll be there forever, it seems like no time at all.”

The monotony in Dante’s voice and the newfound impassiveness of his face is driving him _crazy_. It was not supposed to be like that — his brother should be his happy-go-lucky daredevil self, just like Vergil remembers him best. This Dante doesn’t meet his expectations, and maybe that’s something Vergil feared the most.

Dante is no longer the man, the _boy_ he came to know and love, and he _expected to see_ in all those years.

Vergil forgot that the passage of time is indeed a powerful thing in their lives as hybrids. They both, despite the devil’s blood flowing in their veins, are human enough to be subjects of time and changes, just like any other living thing in the Overworld. They’re not as constant as the rest of demons, who admittedly can change, but they do so over the millennia, not in couple of years.

Dante has changed, but so did Vergil after his experience as V and Urizen. It doesn’t change the fact it is still a bitter pill to swallow.

“Indeed, no time at all. Now, can you explain why you thought it’s such a good idea to seal yourself away with Mundus of all people?”

“People? You say ‘monster’ in a funny way.”

“_Answer me_, Dante.”

“I don’t remember.”

“What do you mean, _you don’t remember?_”

“That I don’t remember, you piece of shit! Do I have to spell it out for you to understand?!”

When Dante realised what he just said, his eyes immediately widens, his posture becomes defensive.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t’ve said that. I’m sorry.”

It is truly a sad state of affairs when Dante offers his contrite to anyone about anything. He never believed in apologizing for things the red hunter doesn't feel any guilt or remorse over — like that time when he has eaten the last chocolate cookie and blamed father for this, but Eva has found out the truth. 

It actually says a lot about how much Mundus has influenced his brother. It makes Vergil hate the Emperor that much more.

Just how far Mundus’ corruption reaches into Dante’s soul? And how Vergil can _fix_ it? Dante has gotten rid of his twin’s corruption by killing him, but Vergil would prefer to not go with that route, especially when he’s not sure if it’s going to even work, seeing as Vergil’s case was pretty unique, just like Dante’s case is special in its own way. 

“Let's go back.”

“To where?”

“Devil May Cry.”

“It's still standing under that name? I was half expecting Lady to sell it to pay off my debt to her.”

“Hmpf. Let’s go.”

Dante gets up from his knees, puts Mundus’ body down on the ground, looks around one final time, and goes after Vergil, not looking back even once.

They go inside the Devil May Cry, now devoid of any dust and dirt, just to see Lady sitting in the chair behind the desk, aiming her gun straight at Vergil’s head.

“So you did bring him back.” Lady lowers her weapon and stands up.

“Was there ever a doubt I wouldn’t do that?”

“I won’t grace it with an answer, Vergil.”

She passes him by and stops in front of Dante. 

Suddenly, Vergil feels as if he was intruding, which is stupid. It is _Lady_ who came here uninvited, and not him, even if she dusted this place off. 

“Hey, Lady.”

“Hey yourself. You could’ve at the very least give Trish a message to me in case you’re not coming back.”

“Sorry. Haven’t thought I’m not coming back.”

Lady’s carefully neutral face softens.

“I know, Dante.”

She carefully takes his hand in hers, and squeezes it gently.

“I missed you.”

“Missed you too, Lady.”

Lady lets go of Dante’s hand, and smiles rakishly.

“Well, I would love to stay here longer, but Morrison just called for the pest problem, so I have to go. It’s no biggie, I’ll take care of it myself, but I promise I’ll take you on a hunt next time. You’ll pay me back for cleaning Devil May Cry later!” Lady laughs.

“Will I ever be able to get out of your debt?”

“Never! You’ll never get rid of me as your collector, Dante!”

It has to be the weirdest way of saying: _I’ll be there_ that Vergil has ever witnessed, but Dante seems satisfied with it all the same. Even if he doesn’t smile, it is clear to Vergil that Dante is fond of Lady, very much so, and their interactions with inside jokes makes Vergil feel a little jealous.

It’s been a long time since Vergil and Dante knew each other so well to have their own jokes that no one else would understand. It's been just as long since they were able to understand each other without words ever spoken.

When Lady left the office, an uncomfortable silence befall.

One breath, then two.

“What are you going to do now?”

“What do you mean?”

“You want a fight with me? I can fight with you.”

“Why are you assuming—”

“Cut the bullshit Vergil. It’s the only thing you wanted from me since we were eighteen. Well, except for mother’s amulet.”

Two heartbeats.

“You know I’m right.”

“You’re not.”

“Look me in the eyes and tell me you didn’t do all of this just to fight with me, that you just wanted to actually see me without ulterior motive.”

Vergil does it, but Dante’s empty eyes makes him look away.

He can’t look at them without remembering how they were once before, and he can’t stop thinking about how filled with hate they were when Dante looked at Mundus’ corpse.

(<strike>He’s not afraid of them,he’s not afraid Dante will ever look at him like that, he is _not_.</strike>)

“... Just as I thought. Bathroom is in the back, but you probably already knew that. I’m going upstairs and see if Lady has thrown out my old junk. Make yourself at home.”

How could Vergil, when the person that would make him _feel_ at home just left?

**Author's Note:**

> My [Twitter](https://twitter.com/AsphodelSky?s=09), where I retweet stuff and sometimes scream into the void


End file.
